


Slow funeral

by SIHWAN



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Assumptions, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28003362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SIHWAN/pseuds/SIHWAN
Summary: The IF story about Genji's death
Relationships: Genji Shimada/Angela "Mercy" Ziegler
Kudos: 9





	Slow funeral

Shimada Genji survived for 429 whole days. Unprecedented records, they said.

He had already lost quite a quantity of body parts when he was rescued. Angela had to replace every body function, including breathing, with mechanical parts. His body, the remaining humane part only being 30%, was mangled thoroughly. It’s a miracle he made it through, said the medic who transported Genji to hospital.  
Overwatch put Angela Ziegler in charge of Genji. She was ordered to reconstruct the man’s fragile life.  
Genji’s ‘surgery’―which was not that different from experiment―started. Genji, nearly unconscious, had to give his consent only by blinking. If you are okay with this, blink once. If not, blink twice. Ziegler had questioned in a detached tone, but she felt sorry for the poor man. Of course he wouldn’t be okay. A human being couldn’t be okay with this. Her words were basically saying, If you want to live, agree to this. Angela’s not sure, maybe Genji had blinked twice then. She had recorded the surgery process for future records, but she had never played that video afterwards. 

Shimada Genji’s mangled human body was replaced with all sorts of parts. At first, they were just prototype models simply replacing body parts. As time passed, they were upgraded into a more neat form. These ones are quite nicely manufactured, Dr. Ziegler had thought without much deliberation while checking whether the parts functioned perfectly.  
Human body doesn’t work like a machine. Organisms don’t work independently with each other. Genji’s first body was full of countless interconnected wires. To test one wire, one had to remove at least 17 other wires. Now, Angela had figured out a way to reduce those troublesome wires. It had become much easier to work with Genji’s body. Genji’s brain signal goes through a complicated machine whose mechanism Angela wouldn't like to probe too much, and this signal is transmitted through pipes in the form of mechanical energy. In the process the younger Shimada lost more of his humanness, and became more of a machine. Zigler couldn’t tell if this was a good progress.  
Genji’s treatment was similar to assembling a sophisticated machine. After a mechanic looks at the parts, then comes Angler’s turn. She checks whether each part corresponds correctly with biomedical data. It is a long, tiring process. She meticulously checks whether the nerves are correctly matched with the corresponding mechanical parts and the new parts replace the dead nerves in time. While she’s checking the screens, the mechanic takes a short nap at the room opposite the operation room. They don’t complain one bit. They all know that Dr. Ziegler never sleeps on a proper bed after she had been ordered to take care of Shimada Genji.  
While she’s contrasting the data, Genji sometimes regains consciousness. He still can’t move, so instead he rolls his eyes and stares at Ziegler. Many times she doesn’t realize this, since Genji is conscious for such short time and her work is always overflowing. But when she does, when she meets his gaze, Angela always smiles back slowly. How are you feeling today? At that question, Genji always blinks once. There is no way he could be feeling good in that state, yet his answer is always the same. It becomes sort of a habit.  
After one whole year of experiments, treatment, search, whatever you want to call this, Genji was finally able to speak. His teeth and mouth parts were nearly completely reconstructed, and the artificial vocal cords―which were upgraded more than once―worked perfectly, thanks to Ziegler. He groaned like a wounded animal since he had not spoken for a long, long time. Then he spat out some unrecognizable words, viciously, then lurched out blood. It took some time for him to say simple phrases like ‘Thank you’. After his rescue, the words Shimada spoke the most would be ‘Thank you’ and ‘Doctor Ziegler’. Two words spoken together, most cases. He was a reticent patient.

After a long and painful operation, Shimada Genji obtained a new body of which more than half was mechanical. However he still couldn’t get up from bed, because he had lost important nerves and organs of his lower body. His upper body fared way better―he couldn’t do subtle and precise stuff like picking up things with chopsticks, but he could grab a soft ball on his own. Overwatch wasn’t satisfied with how things had turned out, but regardless praised Ziegler for her outstanding performance. Next time, you’ll do better, they said. But he’s not an experiment subject, she wanted to cry out. She bit her tongue instead. Genji was to leave one day, and Ziegler was to remain. In this little gray box of death and life.  
Shimada Genji’s case was mentioned in every report. His name was etched into medical history. But all that was meaningless to Shimada Genji, wasn’t it? Ziegler relaxes her hands, which she had unconsciously balled into fists. Traces of her fingernails burn on her sweaty palm. Was it compassion? Ziegler always cared for Shimada Genji. What could have made him agree to this experiment-treatment? Genji never spoke about it, and Ziegler couldn’t ask him. Their relationship was so strange―it was very intimate, yet, sometimes, there was an insurmountable distance between them. Like they were on the opposite parts of the Earth.  
Ziegler sometimes thinks that it would be much better for Genji to just plug out one core part of his body or his breathing hose and end it all. She always does her best to save people. It’s her finesse not to give up until the end of the end, but when she sees Shimada Genji, she can’t shake out the idea that the patient is going through the slowest funeral. By ‘treating’ him, Overwatch gained lots of valuable data. However, all those data lead to one ultimately conclusion: he is going to die. Ziegler knows. Shimada Genji is going to die. Yet she tried to save him. Was it obligation as a doctor, curiosity as a scholar, or compassion for a patient who she saw for more than one year? But one thing is certain. She is going to be devastated when he died.  
She desperately wants to save him. She wants him to stand with two solid feet and breathe and live in the same world where she lives. For the past 15 months Ziegler had wished but for one thing. What do you like? What is your favorite food? Would you like a cup of coffee with me? Endless questions, stacked like letters in one tiny corner of her mind. She can feel that if Genji lives on, maybe, they would be good friends.  
After all this treatment is over, Genji was to enter Blackwatch. It was Reyes who commanded the surgery in the first place. He seemed confident that he would be able to control the mechanized man. Nobody disagreed. Shimada Genji and Blackwatch, it would be a perfect fit. Ziegler hopes that Jesse become a good friend to Genji. Yes, Jesse has a rebellious streak and thus wouldn’t take care of a newbie actively, but joint mission and collaboration would do its magic on them. Hopefully, the three of them would have a chance to drink some beer at some cozy pub one day. Ziegler chuckles. Time is dire, and more dire, more fitting to have such hope.  
Genji always gazes at Angela with that soft light in his eyes. When she drinks caffeine to be awake and dark circles covers her pretty face morosely, Genji would make a long face. His desire to survive is very strong, but when he was talking to Angela, only Angela, he would make that unfathomable expression. It’s okay, Dr. Ziegler. You don’t need to strive more. You’re doing fine even now. His whispers are such a comfort to Angela. So she grabs the man’s human hand and murmurs again and again, don’t give up, don’t give up. We would be good friends, she could have said that once. On the screen next to them flickered a graph was plummeting out of control. The numbers were bad. Very bad.

Shimada Genji’s death was monotonous. Cells refused to correspond with machine parts, and complicated problems arose from within his body. It was a quick, neat death. It was expected. No one didn’t panicked. All necessary procedures were done. However, there was no other end than death after a long period of unendurable pain. Genji asks for a favor for the first and last time in his miserable life. Please end everything with your own hands. And the man, even at that time, doesn’t forget to say thank you. Angela wants to look into his eyes until the very end and say yes with a detached tone, like the first time they met, but she can’t. Her eyes brim with tears. Their gazes don’t meet, and Genji closes his eyes. He’s writhing in terrible pain and waiting for his end. So Angela puts off the life switch. The last blood in his veins circulates through his human veins, and the energy passes through his mechanical parts. For the last time. Even though she knows how humans feel right before death, Ziegler hopes that Genji doesn’t suffer. Eyes closed, he looks peaceful. This is the end, Ziegler thinks as a tear escapes from the corner of her eyes. Ash to ash, dust to dust. Pain of loss is for the ones who remain, painfully breathing, on this mortal world. A slow funeral of 429 days came to an end.

**Author's Note:**

> Twitter  
> Written by @SIHWAN_FAV  
> Translated by @yain0809


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